Judge may oust Tri-City board member

A Superior Court Judge expressed doubt on Friday about a new Tri-City Healthcare District board member’s claim that he was properly elected in November even though he doesn’t live in the district boundaries.

“I have difficulty saying that someone is domiciled somewhere where they have never lived,” Judge Sim von Kalinowski said prior to hearing arguments from attorneys on both sides of a lawsuit challenging Wayne Lingenfelter’s election.

Von Kalinowski did not issue a ruling Friday, but said that he would do so after reading through the cases cited by both attorneys. If he rules against Lingenfelter, the election victory would be voided.

Former board member George Coulter, who lost by 2,000 votes to Lingenfelter, filed the court challenge in December.

Lingenfelter, a former health care executive from Orange County, lives in an apartment in a small section of Vista that is in the neighboring Palomar Health district. He is arguing that his permanent residence will be a home he and his wife purchased in Oceanside in late 2010, in the health care district boundaries.

As he was preparing to run for the Tri-City board, Lingenfelter registered to vote in August at the Oceanside address. Although the house is leased out — and Lingenfelter has never lived there — he signed under penalty of perjury that it was his home address.

Lingenfelter said he and his wife purchased the home with the intent of it being their retirement home. He says they plan to move in Feb. 26.

Coulter’s attorney, Steve D’Braunstein, argued that not only should Lingenfelter be removed, but the law compels the judge to appoint the next highest vote-getter, Coulter.

Lingenfelter took the stand at the hearing and testified that he learned that the apartment was outside of the district when he went to file his candidacy papers at the registrar’s office. He said he told a clerk that he owned the home in Oceanside and that he intended to retire there and asked if that address could be used as his address for purposes of the election. After a brief conversation with a supervisor, the clerk said it was OK and Lingenfelter said he changed his registration address from the apartment to the Oceanside home.

D’Braunstein, during cross-examination, pointed out that following changing his registration address, Lingenfelter continued to use the Vista address on election paperwork such as his statement of economic interests and campaign finance forms.

D’Braunstein also pointed out that during the campaign, Lingenfelter gave no indication of his intent to relocate to the Oceanside address, including receiving mail or sleeping at the home.

“I recall that when I was 10 years old and I lived in Whittier I fully intended I would reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue upon turning age 35,” D’Braunstein said in his arguments. “The indications of one’s residence are well known... Mr. Lingenfelter does not deny that he has never met any of those indications.”

Lingenfelter’s attorney, Stanley Prowse, said that he believed the decision ultimately lies with the district’s board.